A barbell skull crusher for serious triceps mass.
Keep your elbows from flaring out, only your forearms move.
Lying back with the bar overhead and hinging only at the elbows puts the entire load on the triceps through a full stretch and extension cycle. There is no pressing, no chest, no shoulders, just the long lever of your forearm and the muscle that controls it. It earns its place as the barbell mass builder for arms that lag behind an otherwise strong press.
Same fundamental movement, lying elbow extension with a bar lowered toward the forehead. Whatever you call it, the rules are identical, upper arms frozen, elbows in, only the forearms move.
Flaring is your body recruiting the chest to shorten the lever when the triceps get tired. It turns the extension into a bad press. Drop the weight and keep the elbows tracking straight up over your shoulders.
Yes, letting the bar travel slightly behind the head increases the stretch on the long head of the triceps and is easier on many elbows. Keep the upper arms still either way, the angle change should come from the setup, not from swinging.
